The Vespertine (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Vespertine Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Mitchell, Saundra. The Vespertine. Harcourt, 2011. [304p]. ISBN 978-0-547-48247-7 $16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 8–12. Seventeen-year-old Amelia van den Broek is quite sure that when her austere brother shipped her off to the city to stay with her cousin while finding a suitable marriage prospect, he did not intend for her to be holding spiritual readings with [End Page 384] Baltimore’s leading ladies as Maine’s Own Mystic. When several of the visions visited upon her at sunset come to fruition, however, Amelia’s cousin and bosom buddy Zora insists that she use her considerable talents for the benefits of gossip and romance. Adding salt to her poor brother’s wound, Amelia has also taken up with Nathaniel Witherspoon, a lowly painter with no money and no prospects. As their romance heats up, Amelia’s powers grow, but soon she finds herself the bearer of bad news as her visions point toward a tragedy that will destroy lives and unravel her relationship with Zora. Mitchell, author of the ghostly thriller Shadowed Summer (BCCB 2/09), moves her gothic from Southern to Victorian in this richly conceived historical romance. Amelia relates her tale from the prison of her brother’s house where she is forced to return a ruined woman with no friends—as such, the prose is appropriately hyperbolic, complete with flowery metaphors and melodrama. The romance is, in a word, hot, and while it never quite reaches bodice-ripping levels, Nathaniel’s forbidden charms will most certainly have readers swooning. Though details of Victorian courting rituals bog down the book’s pace a bit, there’s still considerable fun to be had here, and Amelia’s supernatural power is believably portrayed. Fans of Libba Bray’s A Great and Terrible Beauty (BCCB 5/04) will find themselves enchanted by this atmospheric tale. Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois